Syrian Rebels Launched 401 Homemade Bomb Attacks Last Year

In 2012, Syrian rebels launched 401 attacks using homemade bombs like this one, shown in Afghanistan. Photo: U.S. Army

The signature weapon of the post-9/11 era is showing up in Syria in a major way. Syrian rebels detonated 401 homemade bombs in 2012.

That’s according to the Pentagon’s bomb trackers at the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. Statistics disclosed to Danger Room indicate that the opposition to dictator Bashar Assad killed 970 people in the second year of its uprising and wounded another 2,456.

The 401 Syrian bomb attacks is still nowhere near the 3,000-plus attacks that occurred last year in Iraq, the birthplace of the improvised explosive device, let alone the 16,000 in Afghanistan. But they do underscore how the cheap, easily adaptable weapon has become a fixture of contemporary irregular warfare. And the data also provides a glimpse into how a durable insurgency, one with a significant terrorist component, is using the bombs.

Overall, 49 percent of the Syrian bombs — 197 of the 401 attacks — caused any casualties. That’s a higher success rate than in Afghanistan; although Assad’s forces don’t have the experience (or the gear) that U.S. troops have thwarting bomb manufacturers.

The overwhelming “target types” tallied by JIEDDO are civilians, who were the victim of the attacks 47 percent of the time, a wide plurality. Syrian police were on the receiving end of 11 percent of the bombs; the Syrian loyalist military was hit 10 percent; and joint police and military installations received 6 percent of the bomb assaults. Generic “infrastructure” represented 6 percent of targets.

JIEDDO didn’t provide further breakdowns of data on the bombs, such as where they’re most prevalent or the level of technical sophistication the Syrian insurgency’s bombs employ. Syrian rebels have previously boasted of getting bomb recipes from the internet.

Civilian casualties are part and parcel of attacks with homemade bombs, which don’t necessarily detonate when rebels or insurgents might want them to detonate, particularly when they’re activated by pressure from travelers. But the large proportions of civilians killed by the rebel bombs is significant, as the rebels are fighting against a dictator who’s got the blood of at least 60,000 Syrians on his hands. Typically, the rebels portray their bomb attacks as a way to even the odds against Assad’s mechanized forces and their heavy artillery. But clearly their bombs are killing more than just soldiers.

It shouldn’t be surprising that homemade bombs have found a place in the Syrian rebel arsenal. The family of homebrewed weapon was born next door, in Iraq, and al-Qaida’s Iraq branch is heavily invested in the Syrian Nusra Front, which the U.S. recently designated as a terrorist organization.